Lake County Commissioners approve 2017 budget

The Lake County commissioners have approved the 2017 general fund budget with slightly more money appropriated than last year’s budget.

The $54,063,396.40 general fund budget is up from the $53,180,318 budget approved for 2016.

Commissioner Daniel P. Troy said there are two main contributing factors for the slight increase. One is rising health care costs. The other is law enforcement, which represents the county’s major expense and medical care within the jail continues to rise significantly each year.

Troy said about 65 percent of the county’s budget is related to the criminal justice.

Advertisement

The county’s revenues are also projected to rise slightly over last year — about 1.6 percent — at $54,070,550. The county’s 1 percent sales tax brings in about $34 million in projected revenue, Troy said. Property tax is projected to bring in about $5.5 million in revenue.

“Investment earnings remain low, and no dramatic increase is expected for the foreseeable future,” Finance/Budget Director Mike Matas wrote in a memo to the commissioners.

A $4.9 million unencumbered carryover is projected for 2018, which is about the same as it was last year, Matas said.

“The budget is basically a blueprint for what we’re going to do for the rest of the year,” Troy said. “The budget doesn’t work unless there is discipline that takes place between now and the end of the year. The budget is tight, the budget is fragile because we have significant things on the horizon that are going to impact us.”

One of those significant things on the horizon is beginning July 1 as Medicaid managed care organizations will no longer be required to pay sales tax. The county’s annual estimated loss will be between $1.6 million and $1.7 million per year.

“We will receive a check in the fall to hold us harmless for the last quarter of this year, but then only about 400-and-something-thousand (dollars) for 2018 and that’s a one-time payment in lieu of our $1.6 to 1.7 million,” Troy said. “In 2019 those dollars will not be there.”

Troy said they are also concerned about the rise in cost of indigent defense, which is the court appointment of a public defender or other attorney to represent someone who cannot afford legal counsel.

“Especially with the rise in the growth of the opioid epidemic and the fact when there are multiple families individuals involved when dealing with juvenile court or domestic relations court,” he said. “Separate counsel has to be provided for different members of the family and that of course is an expense of the county.”

The report measures 17 common indicators with a green (positive), yellow (cautious) and red (critical) warning system similar to that used in traffic lights. Among other things, the system flags a lack of investment in capital and infrastructure, spending that exceeds revenues, declining year-end revenue balances and declines in property-tax revenues.

Lake County was one of 13 counties that received positive indicators in all 17 categories.

“Lake County is a fiscally conservative county and we are acutely aware of our financial situation, so this high rating does not come as a surprise,” Troy said